link to Inter-Bridge.biz

My company teaches English face-to-face or over Skype.

Thursday 10 May 2012

B158:ни пуха ни пера - Good Luck

Very quickly tonight as I have an early start tomorrow for my flight to Berlin. I noticed on my way to today's lesson that the pookh has started to fall. This word (пух) has two meanings - the down, or fluff, on a young bird, or the seeds of the poplar tree. In the second meaning, Moscow will soon endure the annual fall of poplar seeds - in places and at times it will almost look like snow as the white stuff blows about all over the city. It would be quite easy to collect a handful of the stuff, should one be so inclined.
In the first meaning there is a very old hunting idiom ни пуха ни пера which literally means neither feather nor down. It is used nowadays to mean "good luck" in a forthcoming endeavour.
My second photo is just something that took my fancy as I was going round the city. 


No comments:

Post a Comment